Sergei Witte

Sergei Witte (29 June 1849-13 March 1915) was the Finance Minister of the Russian Empire from 30 August 1892 to 16 August 1903, succeeding Ivan Vyshnegradsky and preceding Eduard Pleske. He also briefly served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1903 to 5 May 1906, succeeding Ivan Durnovo and preceding Ivan Goremykin.

Biography
Sergei Witte was born on 29 June 1849 in Tiflis, Russian Empire (present-day Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia) to an Orthodox Christian family of Baltic Germans. He worked in railroad management before Czar Aleksandr III of Russia appointed him Minister of Communications in 1892, giving him control over the railroads of Russia; in August 1892, he became the Finance Minister of Russia. Witte attracted foreign capital to boost the industrialization of the empire, but this led to anger among the Russian laborers and peasants and the subsequent 1905 Russian Revolution. Witte drafted the "October Manifesto" to establish a constitutional monarchy, hoping to please the lower classes. However, he resigned before the first State Duma met, and he died in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) at the age of 65 in 1915.